Akalis claim credit for highways

Bathinda: Though Union Minister for Road, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari’s Bathinda visit for inauguration of the highways got cancelled at the 11th hour, the Akali Dal on Monday went ahead with its public meeting where it felicitated SAD chief Sukhbir Badal and Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal for their efforts in development of Punjab.Addressing the meeting as a thanksgiving gesture to Gadkari, Sukhbir said the Union Minister had sanctioned road infrastructure projects worth nearly Rs 50,000 crore and that some of them were still in the process of completion.He said the Union Minister had informed him recently that two more prestigious projects, which were requested by the erstwhile SAD-BJP government, had also been sanctioned. This included the Amritsar-Delhi expressway via Barnala, which would reduce the distance between the two cities by 100 km, and Jalandhar-Ajmer expressway via Bathinda.Harsimrat said the state made rapid strides in development under the SAD-BJP regime in the state. The state had 13 national highways measuring 1,500 km prior to 2014, but in the last four years, the number of highways had gone up to 36, which now measure 3,500 km.